Salinas Police update community on progress of body cameras

Monday the Salinas Police Department announced it will move forward with a longstanding plan to equip officers with body worn cameras.

The announcement comes as the department secured grant money from two organizations. The largest, a $100,000 grant, came from the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, a local non-profit which puts on the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament each year.

“Body worn cameras are a proven tool for supporting accuracy, accountability and transparency. Those are critical priorities for us, for the public and for the all-important relationship between us,” said Police Chief Kelly McMillin Monday.

The second amount, $49,000 in discretionary funds, was made available by the Bureau of State and Community Corrections under AB 109. This state bill is also known as the prison realignment measure that allows for the transfer of low-level offenders from state to local incarceration.

Chief McMillin said he’s wanted to buy body cameras for the department since he was appointed to his current role in 2011, but was prevented by severe budget constraints.

McMillin applied for the Monterey Peninsula Foundation grant in June. In July, NewsChannel 5 showed you the technology that another department had in southern California.

Now Salinas Police will choose which body wear camera system will work best for the officers and the budget.

“We’re primarily looking for reliability, resolution, security and cost-effectiveness,” said Commander Mike Groves, whose duties include forensic technology.

“We’ve been testing alternatives for about three months, so we’re already well on our way. We expect to take a recommendation to the City Council within the next two to three months,” said Groves.

Body worn cameras attach to an officer’s uniform and record everything he or she does during an interaction with a member of the public.

The recording is then transferred to a secure server after the officer’s shift.

Police say in order to protect both evidence integrity and the public’s privacy rights, access to the footage is tightly controlled, and no one is able to access or alter it unnoticed.